On the 13th of July the Sultan Abdul Aziz arrived in London. On the following day he visited Windsor. The Queen with the younger members of the Royal Family received his Majesty in the Grand Hall, and on his alighting she advanced to meet him. He stepped forward with an Eastern salutation, and kissed her hand, and in the interchange of courtesies which ensued, the Queen affectionately kissed his Highness, the young Izzedin Effendi, the Sultan’s son, as did also the Princess Mary of Teck. The Grand Turk was indeed the lion of the London season of 1867, for Society was en fête in his honour. On the evening of the 19th, after being entertained at a splendid banquet given by the Duke of Cambridge, he attended a grand ball given by the Secretary of State for India. The members of the Indian Council led the procession in a body by themselves, and Sir Stafford Northcote then preceded the august party, at the head of which walked the Sultan, with the Princess Louis of Hesse on his arm. In the brilliant train that followed Moslem and Christian Princes were strangely intermixed. The ball was opened by Sir Stafford Northcote and the Princess Louis, who led off the first quadrille, the Sultan looking on the scene with melancholy gravity, as if it were a show got up for his diversion. He, however, did full justice to the sumptuous supper, after which refreshment he returned to the ball-room, and about two o’clock took his departure, followed by the more distinguished guests. The scene at the India Office had been brilliant as one in Fairyland. But it was marred by one sad incident. Madame Musurus, the wife of the Turkish Ambassador, when taking some friends into supper suddenly dropped down dead. On the 20th the Sultan visited the Volunteer Camp at Wimbledon, and on the 22nd he was entertained by the Duke of Sutherland, and day after day the town was kept in a state of giddy excitement by the uninterrupted succession of spectacles and entertainments provided in honour of the Queen’s Oriental guests. On the 23rd his Majesty left Buckingham Palace, where he had resided twelve days, and amidst the cheering of the populace took his departure for Dover. His visit rather obscured that of the Viceroy of Egypt, who was the guest of the nation at the same time, and was entertained by the Queen at Windsor on the 8th of July.
Besides the melancholy and tragic death of Madame Musurus there was only one other disagreeable incident attached to the Sultan’s visit. A grand naval review at Portsmouth was arranged for his delectation and instruction on the 17th of July. It was known that the Queen intended to confer a mark of distinction on her Imperial visitor, but it was whispered that he was dissatisfied with what her Majesty proposed to do for him. The whole story has since been told by Lord Malmesbury, who says that at first the Queen, at Lord Derby’s suggestion, offered to confer on Abdul Aziz the Star of India. But Fuad Pasha, who was in attendance on Abdul Aziz, hearing of this went to the Lord Steward and warned him that the Sultan would consider himself slighted if he were offered anything but the Garter. Already he had the Bath, and he seemed to consider the Star of India as an inferior distinction to the Bath. Lord Derby was remonstrated with, and finally it was settled that when the Queen received the Sultan on her yacht at the Naval Review she should give him the Order of the Garter. This was done with great pomp and ceremony, as Lord Malmesbury says, “in the midst of the howling of the storm and the roaring of the cannon.” But here another hitch occurred. No ribbon was ready, so the Queen took the ribbon of Prince Louis of Hesse and presented it to the Sultan, intending that he should return it, when a new one could be got for him. “But,” writes Lord Malmesbury, “the Sultan refused to give it (the ribbon) up, saying
THE QUEEN INVESTING ABDUL AZIZ WITH THE ORDER OF THE GARTER.
that the one he had was given to him by the Queen, and that he would wear no other.”[269]
In July the Empress of the French spent a few days quietly with the Queen at Osborne, and on the 9th of August the Queen paid a long visit to the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley, where she went through the wards, speaking after her homely fashion to the sick and wounded soldiers. She took a special interest in one case—that of a man who had been shot through the lungs at Lucknow, in 1858, but who had continued to do duty almost down to 1867.
In the end of the month the Queen resolved to pay a visit to the Scottish Border, an enchanted land of romance and minstrelsy, of fairy lore, and feudal chivalry. On the 28th of August, accompanied by Princess Louise, Princess Beatrice, Prince Leopold, Prince and Princess Christian, and Prince Christian Victor of Sleswig-Holstein, the Queen left Windsor Castle in the evening for Balmoral. She broke the direct route by having her special train stopped at Kelso, in order to visit a valued friend of the Royal Family—the Duchess of Roxburghe. On arriving at the station, the Queen affectionately kissed the Duchess; and her procession to Floors Castle was really a triumphal one. In fact, nothing could have exceeded the heartiness of the greeting which she everywhere got from the people. A vast crowd filled the Marketplace, where her Majesty received an address from the magistrates of Kelso. In replying to it, she said, “I thank you, Mr. Craig, and the town of Kelso; an answer will be sent to your address.” A little girl, the daughter of the Baron Bailie of Kelso, was then lifted up to the royal carriage, and presented to the Queen a large bouquet, which her Majesty received with an expression of delight. Her arrival at Floors, the seat of the Duke of Roxburghe, was announced to the town by a royal salute, fired from Roxburgh Castle. Great illuminations took place in Kelso at night, to the delight of thousands of country people. On the 22nd the Queen paid a visit to Melrose Abbey and Abbotsford. On reaching the Priory, she was received by the Duke of Buccleuch, the proprietor of the ruins and Lord-Lieutenant of the county. The Queen went to Jedburgh on the 23rd, and afterwards visited Hartrigge, a place associated with Lord Chancellor Campbell’s memory. When the royal progress through the land of Scott and Thomas the Rhymer ended the Court proceeded to Balmoral.
This tour brightened the Queen’s spirits, which seemed to have been slightly depressed before she left town. She had half hinted in one of her letters to the Princess Louis that her home was losing its attractions for some members of her family, and these suspicions the Princess promptly dispelled in a letter written from St. Moritz. “You say,” she observes to the Queen, “that our home is dull now for those who like to amuse themselves. It is never dull, darling mamma, when we can be with you, for I have indeed never met a